Notre Dame downs WW-P South with eye toward Trenton

Notre Dame's Rob Bacovin celebrates a first-quarter touchdown Friday against West Windsor-Plainsboro South. Bacovin left the game with a knee injury and did not return. (Trentonian photo/ JACKIE SCHEAR)

LAWRENCEVILLE — Despite losing starting quarterback Rob Bacovin to injury early in the second quarter, Notre Dame celebrated its Pink Out event Friday night in high spirits.

The Irish came away with a 26-0 win against West Windsor-Plainsboro South .

Before the injury, Bacovin scored on a read-option run from 28 yards out to lead the ground attack. He only ran twice but made his presence felt by running for 55 yards.

Head coach Chappy Moore didn’t think the injury was too serious but wasn’t entirely sure of his starting quarterback’s status.

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“We don’t know,” Moore said. “Hopefully we will have him back, but we had to keep him out. He twisted his knee.”

The Irish stuck to their game plan as Lorenzo Bryant scored from a yard out in the second quarter. They led, 13-0, at halftime.

With only a few reps in practice going into the week, backup quarterback Joe Abdo wanted to stay positive as he entered the game.

“I wanted to stay calm and wanted to see that my team sees that I’m confident so they follow behind and believe in me,” Abdo said. “Nothing goes well if you’re all nervous and shaky, and that’s how I approached it.”

The second half for Notre Dame (4-3) started the way the first ended.

Bryant ran down the sidelines for a 17-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter.

By the end of the game, Bryant had 18 carries for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Abdo ended with 61 yards rushing on seven carries, along with 50 yards through the air with a touchdown pass.

The offensive struggles for WWPS (1-6) continued as junior quarterback Andrew Schoepfer threw an interception with 2:26 left in the third quarter. Jimmy Pirolli, a Notre Dame linebacker, returned it to the WW-PS 2-yard line, but the Irish couldn’t cash in.

They got a second chance from close range courtesy of a turnover on downs inside WW-PS’s 30-yard line. Abdo found wideout Vinny Cirlincione from 28 yards out to make it a 26-0 game.

Notre Dame was able to make the Pirates punt on all of their second-half drives except for a fumble recovery and interception, along with a turnover on downs.

Notre Dame enters a bye week before meeting Trenton on Nov. 9. With two week to study the Tornadoes, Abdo is optimistic and eager to see what happens next.

“We’ve got two hard weeks to prepare for Trenton,” Abdo said. “We’ll need those weeks to prepare for them and look at film. That’s got to be our No. 1 focus now: to beat Trenton.”